SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2016 9:37 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: The Power
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 5:26
Message of the verse: “26
"For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the
Son also to have life in Himself;”
We are
looking at the second subpoint under the main point of Spiritual Resurrection
and there will be one more subpoint under this main point, “The Purpose” which
we may also look at today depending on how long this one takes us to get
through.
I want to
talk first of all about something that we need to understand as we look at this
subject of spiritual resurrection. As we
look at the Word of God from the beginning, starting in the book of Genesis we
can see that there is what is called “progressive revelation.” What I am saying is that from the very
beginning after man sinned in the garden God did not say to Adam that in order
for you to become a believer you must believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior
and Lord because that had not happened, but what Adam and Eve did see was what
the Lord told them in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the
woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And
you shall bruise him on the heel."”
What we see here is that the very first promise from God to send a Messiah
into the world who would be born of a woman and who would kill the
serpent. This is all that they had as
far as revelation to believe in order to trust the Lord for salvation. One more example and that comes from the 15
chapter of the book of Genesis where we read “Then he believed in the LORD; and
He reckoned it to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6).” God made a covenant with Abraham in this
chapter, a promise that through him the Messiah would be born, and that God
would give to his descendants all of the Promised Land. We see that Abraham believed God and for that
belief God credited to him His righteousness.
As we work our way through the Old Testament more promises and
revelation are given, and then when we get to the New Testament when Jesus
begins His ministry there is even more revelation given, however at this time
the payment for sin had not been paid by Jesus Christ, but let us go back to
the woman at the well and the others who believed in Christ from her town and
they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, just as He told them and for this
belief they were saved. Now if we go to
the second chapter of Acts we see Peter’s sermon and the revelation concerning
salvation has been complete as Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the
sins of all who would accept Him, He took our place on the cross, was punished
for our sins on the cross by the Father during those hours of darkness, and
then died, was buried, and three days later arose from the dead as God was
satisfied with His work on the cross, and then later was resurrected into
heaven where He is today. Later on the
Day of Pentecost the Promised Holy Spirit was given and after Peter’s sermon
3000 souls were saved as the Church age began and is still going on today, but
will end at the rapture of the Church sometime in the future, hopefully very
soon. So as we look at the spiritual
resurrection that Jesus is speaking of here we understand the time period that
He was in and the revelation that was being given by Him.
Now as we
look at verse 26 we remember the importance of the word life as we see it many,
many times in the book of John. One
thing we cannot forget throughout our study of this discourse that Jesus Christ
is giving to the Pharisees is that He is telling them that He is equal to the
Father and we went over five things that He told them He was equal in our study
of verses 17-24, MacArthur wrote “Jesus makes five unmistakable claims to full
equality with God: He is equal with the
Father in His Person, in His works, in His sovereign power, in His judgment,
and in the honor due Him.” In verse 26
Jesus is saying “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to
the Son also to have life in Himself.”
He is saying that life in Him is the same as life in the Father. MacArthur writes “No one can give to others
what he himself lacks; thus no sinful human being can generate for himself
eternal life, nor impart it to anyone else.
God alone possesses it, and He grants it through His Son to whomever He
wills.”
Now we have
to look at another important quote from MacArthur so we understand this verse
more fully: Those who deny the deity of
Christ twist Jesus’ statement that the Father ‘gave’ life to the Son into an
admission of His own creatureliness and inferiority to the Father. Such is not the case, however. John had already stated in the prologue to
his gospel that the Son possessed life in Himself from all eternity ‘In Him was
life, and the life was the Light of men (John 1:4).’ Again, ti must be affirmed that when He
became a man, our Lord voluntarily gave up the independent use of His divine
attributes (Phil. 2:6-7; cf. John 5:19, 30; 8:28). But the Father granted Him the authority to
give life (both physical and spiritual) even during the self-limiting
condescension of His earthly ministry.”
The Purpose: “those who hear will live”
(John 5:25b).
In John
10:10 we see what kind of life will be given those who believe: “"The thief comes only to steal and kill
and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Not only is it abundant, but it is eternal,
and this speaks of the very time when a person is born from above into the family
of God they begin at that time to experience eternal life. Now we have to understand from this portion of
our verse here that Jesus was in no way saying that all who hear Him will have
eternal life, for we have already seen in John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was
doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He
knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man,
for He Himself knew what was in man.” So
what exactly is He saying here?
MacArthur writes “It is only ‘those who hear’ in the sense of true faith
and obedience to the gospel ‘will live.’
In other words, those who have savingly heard will respond in repentance
and belief. ‘My sheep hear My voice,’
Jesus declared, ‘and I know them, and they follow Me’ (10:27). To Pilate He affirmed, ‘Everyone who is of
the truth hears My voice’ (18:37).” We
have gone over this ground before and there is a hearing and then there is an
effectivual hearing that is given from an effectivual call from the Holy
Spirit. MacArthur concludes “That
statement identifies believers as those who have both the spiritual faculty and
duty to respond to diving revelation. In
contrast, the lost do not savingly hear Christ’s voice; they do not understand
or obey (8:43, 47; 12:47; 14:24), and hence will not live spiritually.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to better understand and to
live the abundant life that Christ speaks of in John chapter 10, a portion we
looked at today.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to show me
more and to learn more of the abundant life.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Faith” (Hebrews 4:2).
Today’s Bible question:
“In the parable of the sower, to what did Jesus liken the seed?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/10/2016 10:31 AM
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